Heinz Winckler Blasted For Online Comments About #BlackMonday

"Some of these guys who are getting so upset about farm murders are probably beating their wives at home."

Singer and former "Idols SA" winner Heinz Winckler is being slammed by people from the Afrikaans community for being critical of the #BlackMonday movement against farm killings.

In a live video on his Facebook page last week, Winckler explained why he believed the protest was not being done appropriately, resulting in thousands of angry responses.

Facebook

Facebook

Facebook

Facebook

Facebook

Winckler said it was unreasonable of the protesters to try to get the attention of the international community.

"They have their own problems, they are under terror attacks, they have got Isis, they have got immigrants and they have all sorts of issues they are dealing with," Winckler said.

He went on to say wearing black was not going to solve the problem of farm murders, adding he believed there were deeper-rooted issues that needed to be addressed.

"Something has to change, that is true, but... is it going to help to wear black on a Monday? Respectfully, I don't think so..." he said.

"We are not going to solve farm murders as a specific problem if we don't look at... the real cause... of the problem; it is not a race thing, but we are making it a race thing... that is not the way we are going to get a better nation," he said.

Winckler said there were many reasons for farm murders that are not directly linked to race.

"We sit with an unbelievably unhealthy, dysfunctional social society, where we have... millions of people that grew up in [a] way that did not teach them what the average Afrikaans, white person was taught when they grew up..."

Winckler then goes on to say that some of these farmers who were part of the protest might also be guilty of some form of abuse themselves.

"Some of these guys who are getting so upset about farm murders are probably beating their wives at home, because if you look at the stats there is a big part of men abusing [their] wives..."

He challenged people not to wear black, but to wear white instead, "as a statement of light against the darkness".

Following the outcry, Winckler posted a second video in which he apologises to the Afrikaans community, saying he did not mean to upset people. He said he did not want to come across as not having sympathy for Afrikaans people.

But he still maintains that he wanted South Africans to unite for a common cause, instead of being divided.

"I love you, I love Afrikaans people, I love black people," he said in the video.